Drapery pleater hook



Sept. 10, 1963 P. ROSENZWEIG DRAPERY PLEATER HOOK Filed Nov. 15, 1957 INVENTOR.

PH/Z lP ROSi/VZ W816 United States DRAPERY PLEATER HOOK Philip Rosenzweig, 19962 Burt Road, Detroit 19, Mich Filed Nov. 13, 1957, Ser. No. 696,137 12 Claims. (Cl. 160348) thereof, the strip being provided with a plurality of pockets or tunnels open at their lower ends and into which the fingers of a drapery pleater hook are arranged to be inserted so as to form pleats along the upper edge of the drapery.

Both said London patent and the patent to Solomon, No. 2,558,467, dated June 26, 1951, show pleater hooks having four pleating fingers in the same plane adapted to form a pleat having substantially parallel folds. 'Ihe difficulty with the pleater hooks and others with which I familiar resides in the fact that the pleats formed by such hooks for the most part look very artificial, whereas the intent of such hooks is to form a pleat that appearancewise resembles a custom made pleat. A custom made pleat that is very attractive has a neat tight pinch and the three folds, instead of extending parallel to one another, are relatively flared sothat at their upper ends, they present an attractive butterfly effect which I term a butterfly plea The pleater hook of the present invention is designed to form a very attractive pleat. Furthermore, the pleater hook is designed to form a pleat which, in appearance, gives the impression of a custom made pleat. cifically, the pleater hook of the present invention is shaped such that the pleat formed thereby has the appearance of being tightly pinched; and, at the same time, the upper ends of the pleat folds are fan-shaped in horizontal sec- More spetion to produce the butterfly effect of custom made pinch pleats.

In the drawings:

FIG. '1 is a fragmentary front elevational view of a drape having a pleat formed therein by means of a pleater hook of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the pleater hook of the present invention.

FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are side elevational and top plan views, respectively, of the pleater hook shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 5, FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are sectional views taken along the lines 5'5, '66 and 7-7, respectively, in FIG. 1. 7

FIG. 8 is a top plan view of the pleated drapery shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view along the line 9-9 in FIG. 1.

The drapery hook of the present invention includes four fingers designated 10, 12, 14 and '16. The two outer fingers 10 and '16 form the legs of a U and are interconnected by the bight portion 18. Likewise, the two inner fingers 1'2 and 14 form the legs of a U that are interconuected by the U-bend 20 On the rear side of these legs, there is provided a hook forming member 22 that has a shank 24. The bight portion 18 and the U-bend 20 of the fingers 10, '12, 14 and 16 are welded to the lower end of shank 24. The inner fingers 12 and 14 have straight vertical portions 26 at their lower ends, laterally outwardly inclined portions 28, straight vertical portions 30, laterally inwardly inclined portions 32 and terminate at their upper ends in straight vertical portions 34. The por-tions26 and 34 are generally vertically aligned, the portions 28, 30, 32

forming an outwardly bowed portion intermediate the ends of the fingers '12 and 14. In side elevation, the fingers 12 and 14 are generally straight and define a flat vertically extending plane (FIG. 3).

The outer fingers 10 and 16, on the other hand, are generally straight in front elevation (FIG. 2.), and they flare laterally outwardly in an upward direction so that the upper rounded ends 36 of these fingers are spaced apart a distance greater than the lower ends of these fingers atthe bight portion '18. At their lower ends, fingers 10 and '16 have forwardly extending horizontal portions 38'which are turned upwardly and inwardly as at 40 to provide upwardly and rearwardly inclined portions 42. The inclined portions 42 extend rearwardly to a plane behind the plane of fingers 12 and Hand then extend upwardly as at 44 in a plane parallel to the plane of fingers 12 and 14. Thus, the fingers 10 and 16 converge toward one another in a downward direction with the forwardly extending portions 42 converging inwardly toward each other in a forward direction. The convergence of the forwardly extending portions 42 is best illustrated in FIG. 4. The rounded ends 36 of all four fingers lie insubstantia-lly the same horizontal plane. However, the rounded ends 36 of the two inner fingers 12 and 14 lie in a plane spaced forwardly of the rounded ends 36 of the two outer fingers 10 and 16. This is clearly illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4.

When the hook described is inserted upwardly into the pleater strip pockets or tunnels 45 provided at the upper end of a drape, the pleat formed thereby has the appearance illustrated in FIG. 1. The pleat generally comprises three folds 46, 48 and 50; These folds have the appearance of being tightly pinched as. at 52 with the two outer folds 46 and 50 flaring laterally outwardly and upwardly in a curved contour as shown at 54. As viewed from above, the pleat thus formed has the appearance indicated in FIG. 8. The center fold 48 is generally straight and projects forwardly in a plane generally perpendicular to the plane of the drape, whereas the two outer folds 46, 50 flare laterally outwardly to produce the butterfly effect illustrated. The particular configuration imparted to these folds along the vertical extent thereof is best illustrated by FIGS. 5, 6 and 7. These sectional views are taken in the planes designated in FIG. 1; and with reference to the pleater hook itself, they are taken at the planes designated A, B and C, respectively, in FIG. 2. In these sectional views, the drapery fabric and the fabric of the pleater strip have been shown for purposes of illustration generally as a single thickness.

Referring first to FIGS. 5 and 6, the reason for the butterfly configuration of the upper end of the pleat becomes apparent. The two outer folds 46 and 5ii'a-re spread widely apart by the bowed portions 30 ofvthe two inner fingers 12 and 14, and this spreading eifect in combination with the rearward location of the two outer fingers 10 and 16 causes the two outer folds 46 and 50 to flare outwardly as illustrated. As pointed out previously, the outer fingers 10 and 16' converge toward one another in a downward direction; and the inclined portions 42 at the lower ends thereof also converge inwardly toward one another in a forward direction. Thus, the two planes defined by these outer fingers converge inwardly toward one another both in a downward direction and a forward direction.

The portions of the two outer folds 46 and 50 in the I region of the pinched portion 52 likewise converge toward each other in both a downward and a forward direction. Since the spacing between the pockets 45 in the pleater strip causes the two :outer folds 46 and 50 to project outwardly beyond the rounded ends 36 of the outer fingers 10 and 16, these two folds at their extreme forward edges in the vicinity of the pinch 52 actually are spaced much closer together in a lateral direction than Patented Sept. 10, 1963 the rounded ends 36. Thus, as is apparent from FIG. 7, the forward edges 56 of the two outer folds 4e, 50 are much more closely spaced than the portions of the outer fingers E and 16 which support these folds. This gives the pleat formed the appearance of being tightly pinched. This appearance of being tightly pinched is enhanced by the fact that the center fold 48 at the pinched portion 52 is recessed between the two outer folds 4 6 and 50 as illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 9. The outer edge of center fold 48 inclines inwardly in a downward direction as shown in FIG. 9.

Thus, it will be seen that I have provided a drapery pleater hook which produces a pleat simulating very closely a-oustom made pleat. The pleat formed by the pleater hook of the present invention has the appearance of being tightly pinched. At the same time, it produces the butterfly effect at the upper end of the pleat which is frequently incorporated in custom made pleats; and the pleat formed does not have the rigid straight lines of pleats formed by other pleater hooks with which I am familiar. These features of the pleat result from the particular configuration described of the inner and outer fingers of the hook. The tightly pinched appearance results from the vertical and horizontal convergence of the outer fingers 14} and 16 and the butterfly effect together with the arcuately flaring appearance of the pleat is produced by the combination of the bowed portions 30 of the inner fingers 12 and i4 and the rearward location of the upper end portions of the outer fingers ill and 16.

It will be apparent that although the pleat formed by my hook has the appearance of being tightly pinched, the fabric folds are not really pinched in the sense that they are squeezed or crushed together. The outer folds are merely directed inwardly towards each other by the lower portions 38, 42 of the two outer fingers as is shown in FIG. 7. This creates the effect of a pinch when viewed in front elevation without actually squeezing the folds together.

I claim:

1. A device for forming a butterfly pleat for use with a drape having a plurality of vertically extending pockets at the upper end thereof, the pockets being open at their lower ends, comprising a series of four vertically disposed and laterally spaced fingers connected together at their lower ends and presenting a formation of two laterally spaced outer fingers and two laterally spaced inner fingers, means connected to said fingers adjacent the lower ends thereof and projecting in a direction rearwardly of said fingers to provide a hook member for suspending the device from a drape supporting rod, the two outer fingers having vertically extending lower end portions thereof converging inwardly toward each other in a downward direction and projecting forwardly of the upper end portions thereof, said two inner fingers lying in a flat vertical plane disposed forwardly of the plane of the upper end portions of the outer fingers and rearwardly of the forwardly projecting portions of the outer fingers,

said inner fingers having the generally vertical mid portion there-of above the forwardly projecting portions of the outer fingers bowed laterally outwardly beyond the laterally adjacent portions of the two outer fingers, all four fingers being spaced apart laterally from each other at their upper ends.

2. A pleater hook for pleating and suspending draperies of the type having a plurality of laterally spaced, vertically extending pockets being opened at their lower ends comprising a series of four upright fingers laterally spaced in a row, the fingers at the opposite ends of the row comprising outer fingers and the two fingers intermediate the ends of the row comprising inner fingers, means connecting all four fingers together at one end thereof, said last mentioned end of the fingers comprising the lower ends thereof, a supporting hook connected to said fingers adjacent the connected ends thereof and being disposed I al at one side of the row of fingers, said last mentioned side of the fingers comprising the rear side, said fingers being spaced apart laterally a distance less than the lateral spacing of the pockets in the drapery and being insertable one finger upwardly into each of four successive pockets on the drapery such that the two inner fingers cooperate with the pockets into which they are inserted to form a center fold and the two end fingers each cooperate with the next adjacent inner finger land the pockets into which they are inserted to form two outer folds flanking the center fold of the pleat, means disposed generally at the vertical mid portion of the pleater hook for spreading the two outer folds laterally outwardly beyond the two outer fingers and the other means adjacent the lower ends of the fingers for retaining the two outer folds in a condition pinched against the center fold adjacent the lower ends of the fingers.

3. A pleater hook for pleating and suspending draperies of the type having a plurality of laterally spaced, vertically extending pockets being opened at their lower ends comprising a series of four upright fingers, laterally spaced in a row, the fingers at the opposite ends of the row comprising outer fingers and the two fingers intermediate the ends of the row comprising inner fingers, means connecting all four fingers together at one end thereof, said last mentioned end of the fingers comprising the lower ends thereof, a supporting hook connected to said fingers adjacent the connected ends thereof and being disposed at one side of the row of fingers, said last mentioned side of the fingers comprising the rear side, said fingers being spaced apart laterally a distance less than the lateral spacing of the pockets in the drapery and being insertable one finger upwardly into each of four succesive pockets on the drapery such that the two inner fingers cooperate with the pockets into which they are inserted to form a center fold and the two end fingers each cooperate with the next adjacent inner finger and the pockets into which they are inserted to form two outer folds flanking the center fold of the pleat, said two inner fingers having generally straight parallel upper and lower end portions and having intermediate portions flaring laterally outward beyond said upper and lower parallel end portions, said two outer fingers having vertical portions extending forwardly beyond the plane of the inner fingers below the outwardly (flared portions of the inner fingers.

4. The combination called for in claim 3 wherein the forwardly extending portions of the two outer fingers are spaced closer together than the upper ends thereof.

5. The combination called for in claim 4 wherein the forwardly extending portions of the two outer fingers converge toward one another in a forward direction.

6. A pleater hook for, pleating and suspending draperies of the type having a plurality of laterally spaced, vertically extending pockets being opened at their lower ends comprising a series of four upright fingers laterally spaced in a row, the fingers at the opposite ends of the row comprising outer fingers and the two fingers intermediate the ends of the row comprising inner fingers, means connecting all four fingers together at one end thereof, said last mentioned end of the fingers comprising the lower ends thereof, a supporting hook connected to said fingers adjacent the connected ends thereof, and being disposed at one side of the row of fingers, said last mentioned side of the fingers comprising the rear side, said fingers being spaced apart laterally a distance less than the lateral spacing of the pockets in the drapery and being insertable one finger upwardly into each of four successive pockets on the drapery such that the two inner fingers cooperate with the pockets into which they are inserted to form a center fold and the two end fingers each cooperate with the next adjacent inner finger and the pockets into which they are inserted to form two outer folds flanking the center fold of the pleat, means on said pleater hook extending exclusively between a point spaced upwardly from the lower ends of four fingers and a point spaced below the upper ends of all four fingers and extending laterally past said outer fingers for spreading the two outer folds laterally outwardly beyond the two outer fingers and other means for retaining the two outer folds in a pinched condition adjacent the lower ends of the outer fingers.

7. A pleater hook for pleating and suspending draperies of the type having a plurality of laterally spaced, vertically extending pockets being opened at their lower ends comprising a series of four upright fingers laterally spaced in a row, the fingers at the opposite ends of the row comprising outer fingers and the two fingers intermediate the ends of the row comprising inner fingers, means connecting all four fingers together at one end thereof, said last mentioned end of the fingers comprising the lower ends thereof, a supporting hook connected to said fingers adjacent the connected ends thereof and being disposed at one side of the row of fingers, said last mentioned side of the fingers comprising the rear side, said fingers being spaced apart laterally a distance less than the lateral spacing of the pockets in the drapery and being insertable one finger upwardly into each of four successive pockets on the drapery such that the two inner fingers cooperate with the pockets into which they are inserted to form a center fold and the two end fingers each cooperate with the next adjacent inner finger and the pockets into which they are inserted to form two outer folds flanking the center fold of the pleat, and means forming a pair of pleat spreaders flanking and extending laterally beyond the outermost fingers in a zone substantially at the vertical mid portion of the pleater hook, one of said pleat spreaders being laterally outwardly adjacent one of the outer fingers and the other of said pleat spreaders being laterally outwardly adjacent the other of the outer fingers, said pleat spreaders being arranged to defleet in a laterally outward direction beyond the two outer fingers, the fold formed by such outer finger and the next adjacent inner finger.

8. A pleater hook for pleating and suspending draperies of the type having a plurality of laterally spaced, vertically extending pockets being opened at their lower ends comprising a series of four upright fingers laterally spaced in a row, the fingers at the opposite ends of the row comprising outer fingers and the two fingers intermediate the ends of the row comprising inner fingers, means connecting all four fingers together at one end thereof, said last mentioned end of the fingers comprising the lower ends thereof, a supporting hook connected to said fingers adjacent the connected ends thereof and being disposed at one side of the row of fingers, said last mentioned side of the fingers comprising the rear side, said fingers being spaced apart laterally a distance less than the lateral spacing of the pockets in the drapery and being insertable one finger upwardly into each of four successive pockets on the draper such that the two inner fingers cooperate (with the pockets into which they are inserted to form a center fold and the two end fingers each cooperate with the next adjacent inner finger and the pockets into which they are inserted to form two outer folds flanking the center fold of the pleat, the two outer fingers having their lower ends projecting forwardly of the plane of the two inner fingers in laterally spaced apart relation the outer fingers having a major portion of their length lying in a plane spaced rearwardly of the plane of the upper portions of the inner fingers.

9. A pleater hook as called for in claim 8 wherein the lower portions of said outer fingers cross the plane of the inner fingers at a rising angle from front to back when viewed from the side of the hook.

10'. A pleater hook as called for in claim 8 wherein portions of the two inner fingers intermediate the upper and lower ends thereof lie in a plane forwardly of the upwardly adjacent portions of said outer fingers and are bowed laterally outwardly beyond the upper and lower portions of the two inner fingers and to at least the latenally adjacent portions of the two outer fingers.

11. A pleater hook as called for in claim 10 wherein the forwardly projecting portions of the two outer fingers are disposed below the outwardly bowed portions of the inner fingers.

12. A pleater hook as called for in claim 11 wherein said forwandly projecting portions of the two outer fingers eonverge inward-1y toward each other in a downward direction.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,623,583 H-andley Dec. 30, 1952 2,754,903 Czetli et al. July 17, 1956 2,758,645 Sherman Aug. 14, 1956 2,779,404 Hess Jan. 29, 1957 2,7 96,928 Bernhard et al June 25, 1957 

2. A PLEATER HOOK FOR PLEATING AND SUSPENDING DRAPERIES OF THE TYPE HAVING A PLURALITY OF LATERALLY SPACED, VERTICALLY EXTENDING POCKETS BEING OPENED AT THEIR LOWER ENDS COMPRISING A SERIES OF FOUR UPRIGHT FINGERS LATERALLY SPACED IN A ROW, THE FINGERS AT THE OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE ROW COMPRISING OUTER FINGERS AND THE TWO FINGERS INTERMEDIATE THE ENDS OF THE ROW COMPRISING INNER FINGERS, MEANS CONNECTING ALL FOUR FINGERS TOGETHER AT ONE END THEREOF, SAID LAST MENTIONED END OF THE FINGERS COMPRISING THE LOWER ENDS THEREOF, A SUPPORTING HOOK CONNECTED TO SAID FINGERS ADJACENT THE CONNECTED ENDS THEREOF AND BEING DISPOSED AT ONE SIDE OF THE ROW OF FINGERS, SAID LAST MENTIONED SIDE OF THE FINGERS COMPRISING THE REAR SIDE, SAID FINGERS BEING SPACED APART LATERALLY A DISTANCE LESS THAN THE LATERAL SPACING OF THE POCKETS IN THE DRAPERY AND BEING INSERTABLE ONE FINGER UPWARDLY INTO EACH OF FOUR SUCCESSIVE POCKETS ON THE DRAPERY SUCH THAT THE TWO INNER FINGERS COOPERATE WITH THE POCKETS INTO WHICH THEY ARE INSERTED TO FORM A CENTER FOLD AND THE TWO END FINGERS EACH COOPERATE WITH THE NEXT ADJACENT INNER FINGER AND THE POCKETS INTO WHICH THEY ARE INSERTED TO FORM TWO OUTER FOLDS FLANKING THE CENTER FOLD OF THE PLEAT, MEANS DISPOSED GENERALLY AT THE VERTICAL MID PORTION OF THE PLEATER HOOK FOR SPREADING THE TWO OUTER FOLDS LATERALLY OUTWARDLY BEYOND THE TWO OUTER FINGERS AND THE OTHER MEANS ADJACENT THE LOWER ENDS OF THE FINGERS FOR RETAINING THE TWO OUTER FOLDS IN A CONDITION PINCHED AGAINST THE CENTER FOLD ADJACENT THE LOWER ENDS OF THE FINGERS. 